Roundabout's A Touch of the Poet Announces Full Cast

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the cast of the new Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's drama A Touch of the Poet, directed by Tony Award® winner Doug Hughes at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th Street).

A Touch of the Poet will begin previews Friday, November 11th, 2005 and opens officially on Thursday, December 8th, 2005. This is a limited engagement through January 29, 2006.

The design team for A Touch of the Poet includes Santo Loquasto (sets & costumes), Chris Akerlind (lights) and David Van Tieghem (sound design and original composition).

Set in a shabby tavern outside Boston in 1828, A Touch of the Poet finds an Irish immigrant who fancies himself as a distinguished gentleman despite all evidence to the contrary. Down-on-his-luck, he finds himself in a quandary when his daughter falls for the son of a wealthy American and he insists on maintaining his European gentility.

Doug Hughes returns to the Roundabout Theatre Company where he directed Jon Robin Baitz's The Paris Letter and Stephen Belber's McReele, both at the Laura Pels Theatre. He will also direct Roundabout's New York premiere of Tony Award® winner Richard Greenberg's new comedy

This will be Byron Jennings fifth production at the Roundabout Theatre Company. He appeared at Roundabout Theatre Company in A Month in the Country (1995), The Man Who Came to Dinner (2000), The Foreigner (2004) and Twelve Angry Men (2005). Roundabout alumni also includes Dearbhla Molloy (Juno and the Paycock,2000), Emily Bergl (Fiction, 2004) and Kathryn Meisle (Tony® nomination for Tartuffe, 2003 and The Constant Wife, 2005).

Roundabout Theatre Company's last association with Eugene O'Neill, was the 1992/1993 production of Anna Christie starring Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. The production received four Tony® nominations.

A Touch of the Poet premiered on Broadway in 1958 at the Helen Hayes Theatre. The last production was staged in 1977 also at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Both productions received Tony® nominations for Best Play and Revival.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets will be available in September 2005 by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300 or online at www.roundabouttheatre.org. A Touch of a Poet will play Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00PM with a Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2:00PM. PLEASE NOTE the following early-to-bed series: A Touch of a Poet will play early curtains at 7:00 PM from December 13th  December 23rd.

Biographies:

Gabriel Byrne (Cornelius Melody) began his acting career with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and subsequently joined the Royal Court and the National Theatre in London. He has starred in 35 films for some of cinemas most creative directors including Wim Wenders, David Cronenberg, Jim Jarmusch, the Coen brothers, John Boorman, Michael Mann, Ken Russell and Ken Loach. Mr. Byrne last appeared on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's Tony® Award-winning Broadway play A Moon for the Misbegotten. He received a Best Actor Tony® nomination for his portrayal of "James Tyrone, Jr."

Byron Jennings (Jamie Cregan). Broadway: Twelve Angry Men (Roundabout), Noises Off; Sight Unseen (MTC); The Man Who Came to Dinner and A Month in the Country (both for the Roundabout); Henry IV, Dinner at Eight, The Invention of Love, Carousel, all for LCT. Off-B'way: The Foreigner (Roundabout), Dealer's Choice (MTC); Waste (TFANA); Merchant of Venice, On the Open Road, Pericles (NYSF/Public); The Underpants (CSC); The Waiting Room (Vineyard). Film: Hamlet, Civil Action, The Ice Storm, A Time to Kill, A Simple Twist of Fate, Quiz Show.

Kathryn Meisle (Deborah). Currently appearing in Roundabout's Broadway production of The Constant Wife. She was previously seen at Roundabout Theatre Company in Tartuffe for which she received a Tony Award Nomination for outstanding featured actress and the Calloway Award. Other Broadway: London Assurance, The Rehearsal and Racing Demon (Lincoln Center). Off-Broadway includes: Living Out (Second Stage), Old Money (LCT), What You Get and What You Expect, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (NYTW), Olivia in Twelfth Night, Celia in As You Like It (Drama Desk Award nomination) and Desdemona in Othello (NYSF/Delacorte). Her most recent of many regional theatre appearances was as Masha in The Three Sisters at The Guthrie. Film and television credits include "NYPD Blue", "CSI Miami", "Without a Trace", "The Guardian", "Law & Order", "Law & Order SVU", "OZ", You've Got Mail and "Rosewood".

Randall Newsome (Paddy O'Dowd). Randall most recently appeared in The Alliance Theatre/Acting Company co-production of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter directed by Doug Hughes. Previous New York stage credits include The 78th Street Theatre Lab, The Upper Depths and Concrete Temple. He has appeared at several regional theatres including The Pittsburgh Public Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Florida Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The Stamford Fringe Festival, Two River Theatre, and New American Theatre. In the Chicago area, Randall's credits include The Candlelight/Forum Theatre, Zebra Crossing and Apple Tree Theatre. Randall also performed in the national tour of the 125th edition of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His film and television credits include Big Fat Liar, Tremors, Highlander II with Sean Connery, Benji: Off the Leash, Law & Order, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Guiding Light and NBC's Ed. Prior to his work as an actor, Randall assistant directed several feature films and television productions including Primal Fear, The Mighty Quinn, Dennis the Menace, Blink, Flipper, Poison Ivy, "Chicago Hope", HBO's "Normal Life" and the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink.

Ciaran O'Reilly (Dan Roche). Irish Repertory Theatre: The Streets of New York, The Hostage, The Country Boy, Shadow of a Gunman, The Irish and How They Got That Way, Da (with Brian Murray), A Whistle in the Dark, The Au Pair Man and more. Broadway: The Com in Green. Abbey Theatre (Dublin): Deoraiocht, Sendra. TV: "Third Watch", "Law & Order: SVU", "As the World Turns", "Guiding Light", "One Life to Live". Film: The Devil's Own, A Further Gesture, Far and Away.

Doug Hughes (Director) is returning to The Roundabout where he directed Jon Robin Baitz's The Paris Letter and Stephen Belber's McReele. His Manhattan Theatre Club production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt is currently running on Broadway at the Walter Kerr. He is the Resident Director at MCC Theater, where he has directed Last Easter, Scattergood, Frozen, Anadrako and The Grey Zone (Obie Award and Drama Desk nomination), co-produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit and received the first-ever MCC Award. Recent work in New York includes Engaged at Theatre for a New Audience; Flesh and Blood (Callaway Award), The Beard of Avon and A Question of Mercy, all at NYTW; Othello (with Keith David and Liev Schreiber) at the Public; John Guare's Lake Hollywood at Signature and An Experiment with An Air Pump for MTC. He has directed five productions for the Guthrie, where he also served as Director of Artistic Planning. Other regional: Seattle Rep (Associate Artistic Director); LaJolla Playhouse; The Shakespeare Theatre in D.C.; London's Bush Theatre; Yale Rep; the Alliance Theatre and the McCarter. For his work on Frozen, Hughes received Tony Award, Lortel and OCC nominations.

EUGENE O'NEILL (Playwright). Born in New York City on October 16, 1888, he was the first great American playwright. His father was James O'Neill, the famous dramatic actor, and during his early years O'Neill often traveled with his parents. Beyond the Horizon (1920), the first of his plays to reach Broadway, won a Pulitzer Prize (he eventually won four) and opened the way for serious theatre in this country. In 1936 he became the only American playwright ever awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His major works include The Emperor Jones (1920); The Hairy Ape (1922); Desire Under the Elms (1924); The Great God Brown (1926); Strange Interlude (1928); Mourning Becomes Electra (1931); Ah, Wilderness! (1933); A Moon for the Misbegotten (1957); Hughie (1964); A Touch of the Poet (1967); and what most authorities consider his two greatest plays, The Iceman Cometh (1939) and Long Day's Journey Into Night, completed in 1941 but unproduced until three years after his death on November 27, 1953.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

The 2005-2006 season marks the Roundabout Theatre Company's 40th anniversary.

The company's 2005-2006 season, under the continuing leadership of Artistic Director Todd Haimes, is dedicated to the community of artists and loyal audience members who have made Roundabout one of New York's most popular not-for profit cultural institutions.

Roundabout Theatre Company productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. The Westin Hotel is the official hotel of the Roundabout Theatre Company.